"We still have the severe weather warning for heavy rain and normally we would issue these when we're looking at up to 150 millimetres in a six hour period, at the moment that's not looking very likely but we'll sit and watch before we get rid of that one," he says.

"We could accumulate some decent falls in the next 24 to 36 hours.

"There's a strong ridge up the east coast, it was strong down south even without Ex-Tim helping it so the ridge has pushed up the coast with some reasonably good south east winds."

He says it's fairly uncomfortable out on the waters near the Central Coast.

The system is expected to make landfall early Thursday morning south of Cairns.

"If you're in that area I don't think you're even going to notice it," says Mr Banks.

He says over the next 48 hours residents can expect rain showers and possible storms.

"We'll see the heavier rainfall slip up north of Townsville tomorrow and then it will just be scattered showers for the Central Coast and Whitsundays and it will probably back down to isolated showers into the weekend," he says.

"It will be considerably cooler than average but we don't expect the heavier rainfall to extend further inland."

Wind gusts are expected between Bowen and Yeppoon but are no longer expected to exceed 90km/h.